COLONIALISM, APOLOGIES AND CIVILISATION

 Dayo Sobowale argues that no apology can  make up for historical wrongs

I start today on the premise that there is a current trend, globally,  to  subvert history with apologies and reparations, that is bound  to cause more harm than good to the cultures and forced civilisations that have  been the immutable products of  such   history .  Colonialism has decidedly left its immutable  mark and signature in the life and times as well as the culture of the colonial  subjects of the colonies that it conquered  by force of arms and the strategy  of religion and gunboat  power and diplomacy .  There have obviously been irreparable damage  to  the  cultures of the conquered and subjugated  colonies  in terms  of acculturation and assimilation into the cultures of  the colonial powers  that have no atonement  or redress , financially and culturally  . So who , what and why the sudden and recent plea  for apologies and regret for  planned and well- premeditated   explorations of  plunder that enriched the coffers of past  colonial  masters , especially from the ancient capitals of the champions of colonialism in  recent times?  I will illustrate with examples  to show that the answer may not  be found in  the assumed  compunction or in the pleaded face saving apologies to history , but in the simple fact that the chicken has come home to roost for colonialism in terms of democracy which is a game of numbers , and in the very  heart  and capitals  of formerly colonial Europe .

Last week the British monarch  King Charles 111 read  the Speech  from the throne  in the British House  of Commons  written constitutionally  by the PM  Rishi  Sunak,  son of Indian migrants and products of colonialism . The same King Charles was on a state  visit  to Kenya where he apologized for the wrongs of colonialism in the place from where the mother , the late Queen Elizabeth 11 was informed of her father’s death  and was proclaimed Queen on Kenya’s colonial  soil immediately.

 Also  this same week Elon Musk the owner of  X (Twitter) and electric car giant Tesla asked rich Tech  billionaires like himself  to procreate and have children because humanity  would be wiped out very soon if the decline being witnessed globally in human population  growth persists.  Musk, all   on his own, already  has 10 children from  three  women . Yet,  in colonial times monogamy was used to wipe out polygamy ,  the traditional marriage system  found on the ground in African societies  by gun- toting ,   bible – carrying colonial evangelists . Musk went on to raise the alarm that global  demographic  reduction was a more  potent and dangerous issue than climate change  for  human  civilization as we know it today .

It is here that I  want to draw a comparison between King Charles’ speech  from the throne written by the colonial subject Sunak as PM and Elon Musk’s  opinion that natalism  ,  which is promotion  of human procreation  or  childbearing  ,  is more important to the future of human civilization  and survival  than climate change ,  the  progressive  ideology driving human civilisation and economic  development  against the future nowadays .  King Charles’  unprecedented long wait for the crown  has seen him adopting conservation as his life-long objective to preserve the human environment long before climate change  became the  powerful environmental fashion and power that it is today . But the speech  the King  read defied the tenets of Britain’s earlier global commitment to climate change to eliminate  fossil  fuel  and oil production  by a given  date  in the future  and    replace it  with  clean, green energy. Britain under Sunak is investing heavily in new oil explorations, in new  oil  fields  to  boost its sagging economy . In addition in contradistinction to EU cultural values of gender identity,  LGBTQ  and same-sex   marriages, Sunak, leader of the Conservative Party is on record as saying at a recent Party Convention that a man is different from a woman because a man has penis and a woman does not and it  is a  man and a woman that make a family . Luckily Britain is a Brexit, EU free Britain nowadays. 

Let me make it clear. I know that when Elon Musk talks  of civilization he means western civilization  and not the  civilization of the  citizens of the former colonies of colonialism . He is a South African, now an American  brought up under apartheid and he really cannot understand anything about colonial  civilization which the independent nations of colonialism are  products of ,  in spite  of their much cherished independence .

 I will use Nigeria and Ghana to illustrate the point I want to make that no reparations or apologies can  indemnify the wrongs that King Charles apologized for in Kenya or any former colony for that matter including my own Nigeria . Indeed  I make bold to say that it is better to let the sleeping dogs of history lie  very  dead rather than resurrect painful  memories  that will reopen  old wounds that are socially and  culturally untreatable like an unstoppable  human cancer .

Look at Kenya’s history which is that it got independence through the Mau Mau Uprising led by Jomo Kenyatta who became president at Independence and his son Uhuru who   later became a president of Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta and his former VP  Ruto , who  succeeded him speak impeccable English  and I  have never seen them dressed in anything but sleek  European designer suits. Can any  historical  apology change that?  On a personal  note many  of us writers and journalists and even engineers and doctors earn a living by  practicing  our trade and professions with the English language . Can we  ever do  that in vernacular? What reparations or apologies  can change that? Some have called such views colonial mentality but can  we exist without it ?  . There is wisdom in the old observation that history must take its course and that those who fail to learn from the lessons of history must repeat its failures . Historical apologies are cruel   fallacies that recreate old wounds and are best left in the dustbin of history where they safely and truly belong. 

Sobowale is a news analyst with Arise News